The strike was led by members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or the "Wobblies") which bottled up shipping in the harbor. One of the largest staged protests during the strike was led by author Upton Sinclair on a small plot of land called Liberty Hill where he was arrested for reciting the First Amendment. It was eventually crushed by a combination of injunctions, mass arrests and vigilantism by both the police force and the Ku Klux Klan. There would not be another waterfront strike of this magnitude until the 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike.

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Labor relations in the Pacific coast maritime industry had been in almost constant turmoil since the turn of the century. The traditional craft unions of seaman and longshoremen, plagued by bureaucratic squabbles, the hostility of the Los Angeles Times, powerful employers’ groups such as the Merchants’ and Manufacturers Association were not able to change the culture of open shops in Los Angeles.[1]

One of the most effective weapons used by open shops to combat radical forces was “decausualization,” which relied heavily on the use of company-controlled hiring halls to weed out as many union sympathizers as possible from working in the docks. Even with all the preventative measures put in place, members of the IWW were able to still infiltrate a vast amount of the docks on the West Coast under the guise of other organizations used as a front.[2]

Although the IWW was able to gain access to the docks, they were not having too much success on the waterfronts of California until the start of World War I. The build-up leading to American involvement meant higher than normal output in all the ports, and a shortage of labor. In May 1916, the International Longshoremen’s Association began a dockworker’s strike for an increase in wages in Seattle, Washington. The dockworkers in San Pedro, totally about 1,600, came out on strike at the same time.[3] The strike was quickly put down when the shop owners hired a special Los Angeles Police Department unit to work in the protections of strikebreakers to maintain an opened shop.

In October 1919, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce let it known of their intention to fully restore completely open shop conditions through the entire harbor, a decision that was supported by all the shops and companies in the area, sparking yet another small strike that was broken up quickly. The local unions were not strong enough to resist San Pedro in becoming a complete open shop city and most of the local union leaders gave up the fight, but the IWW members who were there in town did not.[4] Concerned with dwindling numbers in California the IWW’s general executive board in Chicago requested all remaining Wobblies on the West Coast to head down to San Pedro to help contest the open shop on the docks and the constitutional limits of California’s criminal syndicalism law.[5]

The Industrial Workers of the World quickly sprung into action, and disrupted the Local No. 31-18.[6] The actions did not do much in the attempt to displease the employers, but once the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was eliminated, the left-wingers became persona non grata. Efforts to keep Wobblies from dock employment were not successful. Although there were large amounts of IWW members under the new California criminal syndicalism law, there was still high levels of unrest on the San Pedro docks. There was a series of mini strikes in the early months of 1923 that kept several ships from sailing on time.[7]

Liberty Hill, circa April or May 1923. Right background shows Terminal Island and then Southwestern Shipyard (forerunner to Bethlehem). The speaker on platform at left has been identified by Bob Bigelow as fellow worker F.W.Yelovich.

The strike began on April 25, 1923, shortly after the Los Angeles County Grand Jury held hearings on violations of the criminal syndicalism act.[8] The San Pedro Local No. 510 called a strike and effectively tied up the port for several days. The walkout was national in scope, with its pivotal points in New York and Los Angeles; it brought out 5,000 men on the east coast and probably 1,500 locally, with estimates at San Pedro ranging as high as 3,000. It had little effect at other Western ports, however, though a number of Pacific Coast lumberjacks and oil workers participated and the independent Federation of Marine Transport Workers joined with the Wobblies. Members of the Sailors Union of the Pacific refused to support the strike, not only because it was IWW-inspired, but also because they were already "working the oracle" or, in other words, conducting a slowdown with some success. The strike itself was a peculiar combination of an ordinary economic walkout and a political maneuver. In its nationwide aspects, it sought to secure the release of political prisoners, particularly those accused of sedition against the federal government or held under the California Criminal Syndicalism Act.[9]

The walkout tied up about ninety ships in the Port of Los Angeles. Police quickly started to round up known IWW agitators, thus depleting the ranks of strike leaders and permitting some ships to get under way. Twelve vessels in the offshore trade, manned by seamen sympathetic to the IWW, suffered the longest delays. The thirty-seven lumber schooners in port were largely manned by non-unionists or members of the Sailors Union. Nevertheless, the cargoes of a number of them had to be discharged in rotation at the piers by the ships' officers because of the shortage of dockhands.[10]

Then the Wobblies through their newspaper the Industrial Worker made the call for a citywide strike on May 1, 1923 (the historic May Day of international socialism). They called the announcement to “free the class prisoners”[11] which is the IWW term for those who had been convicted and jailed under the criminal syndicalism act. On the same day, IWW leaders persuaded approximately 450 of 2,200 men to strike at refinery construction jobs two miles north of the harbor, and it seemed likely that the dispute would spread beyond the water front. Employers therefore decided to take immediate action both to prevent this and to move ships more rapidly. Negotiations with the longshoremen, however, foundered on their demand for their own hiring hall and the abandonment of the Sea Service Bureau, or "Fink Hall," controlled by the stevedoring and shipping firms. Some 1,200 longshoremen voted to remain out until the employers met this basic request.[12]

About 140 extra patrolmen and 20 detectives were dispatched to the docks by the Los Angeles Police Department to maintain order in the event of a showdown.[13] On May 5 more than 100 strikebreakers arrived and were immediately put to work. Two hundred more were scheduled to begin employment on May 8 and an additional 750 were due a few days later. By May 10, 1,500 longshoremen were at work, of whom 350 were imported strikebreakers. The extra police force was increased to 250, largely because of a fire on May 5 which had obviously been the work of an arsonist.

As the strike entered its fourth week, the police cracked down even harder on the Wobblies. The Los Angeles headquarters of the KKK handed out a pamphlet to local citizens to get more supports and help the police force break up the strike. Members of the Ku Klux Klan, with or without their hoods regularly came to the San Pedro docks to be a force of intimidation. The latter began to look on the dispute as a free-speech fight and continued to hold meetings near the water front at a point known as Liberty Hill, a privately owned parcel of land used with the permission of the owner. Local sympathizers and members of the American Civil Liberties Union joined the IWW leaders in seeking to maintain rights of free speech. They included such prominent Los Angeles and Pasadena figures as Upton Sinclair.[14]

San Pedro Court House where IWW strikers were jailed during the 1923 maritime strike. Jailings inspired Upton Sinclair to write his play, "The Singing Jailbirds." The building was demolished in the late 1920s.

In the early evening of May 15, 1923, Upton Sinclair stood before a crowd on Liberty Hill in San Pedro. He chose to honor the hill’s namesake by using words to test the boundary between liberty and sedition. He spoke, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech . . .” Before Sinclair could finish reciting the First Amendment, he and three others were arrested. The arresting officer was recorded to have said, “We’ll have none of that Constitution stuff.”[15] Three days later, seventy-one alleged
IWW members were arrested and jailed. So effective was police action against strike leaders that the Shipowners' Association declared the walkout over on May 18, when eighty-five vessels were loaded or unloaded by 2,800 longshoremen for the busiest day in port history. Fifty policemen were immediately returned to Los Angeles for regular duty, and 500 strikebreakers were given permanent employment.

Although the strike was losing ground, IWW leaders did not give up. Many of their members were in jail and others had left town to look for jobs elsewhere. The efficiency of longshore operations was improving each day. Strikers who were not proven Wobblies were returning to work through the open-shop Sea Service Bureau. But still the walkout continued. On May 21, 3,000 posters announcing a meeting at Liberty Hall in San Pedro on the evening of May 23 were distributed in the harbor area. The meeting was to be addressed by Upton Sinclair and a number of other speakers under the auspices of the American Civil Liberties Union. The meeting drew 5,000 people, but there were no fireworks, as police were present to ensure that it was peaceful. The next day a general meeting of 600 longshoremen, most of whom were not Wobblies, voted to "transfer" the dispute back to the job, and the walkout was officially ended.[16]

The 1923 San Pedro Maritime strike was the biggest challenge to the dominance of the open shop philosophy that controlled Los Angeles until the 1930s. It was defeated without too much of a struggle because of the strength the shop owners, use of the Los Angeles Police Department, KKK, and others as enforcers to try and break the strike. Another factor which helped defeat the strike was the high amount of strikebreakers who were brought into the city from all other parts of the state, which helped keep the docks open enough to allow commercial business to take place. The open shop would remain the ideology that ran Los Angeles for another 15 years.

Images courtesy of California Historian, a publication of the Conference of California Historical Societies, Vol. 44, #3, Spring 1998, University of Pacific, Stockton, California, and under direct consent of the Industrial Worker's of the World.

1.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital

2.
Industrial Workers of the World
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The Industrial Workers of the World, members of which are commonly termed Wobblies, is an international labor union that was founded in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois in the United States of America. The union combines general unionism with industrial unionism, as it is a union whose members are further organized within the industry of their employment. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as industrial unionism. At their peak in August 1917, IWW membership was more than 150,000, Membership declined dramatically in the 1920s due to several factors. Membership also declined due to government crackdowns on radical, anarchist and socialist groups during the First Red Scare after WWI. The most decisive factor in the decline in IWW membership and influence, however, was a 1924 schism in the organization, from which the IWW never fully recovered. The IWW promotes the concept of One Big Union, and contends that all workers should be united as a class to supplant capitalism. They are known for the Wobbly Shop model of democracy, in which workers elect their managers. IWW membership does not require that one work in a represented workplace, in 2012, the IWW moved its General Headquarters offices to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago. The origin of the nickname Wobblies is uncertain, the convention, which took place on June 24,1905, was referred to as the Industrial Congress or the Industrial Union Convention—it would later be known as the First Annual Convention of the IWW. In its time, it was considered one of the most important events in the history of industrial unionism. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the people and the few. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the class have interests in common with their employers. Instead of the motto, A fair days wage for a fair days work, we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword. It is the mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, by organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old

3.
Upton Sinclair
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Upton Sinclair Jr. was an American writer who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclairs work was well-known and popular in the first half of the twentieth century, in 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created, Time magazine called him a man with every gift except humor and silence. He is also remembered for the line, It is difficult to get a man to understand something. Many of his novels can be read as historical works, writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of industrialized America from both the working mans point of view and the industrialist. Novels like King Coal, The Coal War, Oil. and The Flivver King describe the conditions of the coal, oil. He attacked J. P. Morgan, whom many regarded as a hero for ending the Panic of 1907, the Flivver King describes the rise of Henry Ford, his wage reform, and the companys Sociological Department to his decline into antisemitism as publisher of The Dearborn Independent. King Coal confronts John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his role in the 1913 Ludlow Massacre in the fields of Colorado. Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party, Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Upton Beall Sinclair and Priscilla Harden. His father was a salesman whose alcoholism shadowed his sons childhood. Priscilla Harden Sinclair was a strict Episcopalian who disliked alcohol, tea, as a child, Sinclair slept either on sofas or cross-ways on his parents bed. When his father was out for the night, he would sleep alone in the bed with his mother, Sinclair did not get along with her when he became older because of her strict rules and refusal to allow him independence. His mothers family was affluent, her parents were very prosperous in Baltimore. Sinclair had wealthy maternal grandparents with whom he often stayed and this gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived during the late nineteenth century. Living in two social settings affected him and greatly influenced his books, as he was growing up, Uptons family moved frequently as his father was not successful in his career. He developed a love for reading when he was five years old and he read every book his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world. He did not start school until he was ten years old and he was deficient in math and worked hard to catch up quickly because of his embarrassment. In 1888, the Sinclair family moved to Queens, New York, Upton entered the City College of New York five days before his 14th birthday, on September 15,1892

4.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
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It was adopted on December 15,1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was originally proposed to assuage Anti-Federalist opposition to Constitutional ratification, initially, the First Amendment applied only to laws enacted by the Congress, and many of its provisions were interpreted more narrowly than they are today. Beginning with Gitlow v. New York, the Supreme Court applied the First Amendment to states—a process known as incorporation—through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court overturned English common law precedent to increase the burden of proof for defamation and libel suits, commercial speech, however, is less protected by the First Amendment than political speech, and is therefore subject to greater regulation. The Free Press Clause protects publication of information and opinions, in Near v. Minnesota and New York Times v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected against prior restraint—pre-publication censorship—in almost all cases. The Petition Clause protects the right to all branches and agencies of government for action. In addition to the right of assembly guaranteed by this clause, eight of the other thirteen states made similar pledges. However, these declarations were generally considered mere admonitions to state legislatures, after a brief debate, Masons proposal was defeated by a unanimous vote of the state delegations. For the constitution to be ratified, however, nine of the thirteen states were required to approve it in state conventions, opposition to ratification was partly based on the Constitutions lack of adequate guarantees for civil liberties. Constitution was eventually ratified by all thirteen states and this language was greatly condensed by Congress, and passed the House and Senate with almost no recorded debate, complicating future discussion of the Amendments intent. The First Amendment, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, was submitted to the states for ratification on September 25,1789, and adopted on December 15,1791. In Reynolds v. United States the Supreme Court used these words to declare that it may be accepted almost as a declaration of the scope. Congress was deprived of all power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order. In these two sentences is found the distinction between what properly belongs to the church and what to the State. Originally, the First Amendment applied only to the federal government, Massachusetts, for example, was officially Congregationalist until the 1830s. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, in the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of separation between church and State. That wall must be high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach, in Torcaso v. Watkins, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution prohibits states and the federal government from requiring any kind of religious test for public office

5.
Ku Klux Klan
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Historically the KKK used terrorism, both physical assault and murder, against groups or individuals whom they opposed. All three movements have called for the purification of American society, and all are considered right-wing extremist organizations, the first Klan flourished in the Southern United States in the late 1860s, then died out by the early 1870s. It sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South during the Reconstruction Era, with numerous chapters across the South, it was suppressed around 1871, through federal law enforcement. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes, robes, masks, and conical hats, designed to be terrifying, the second group was founded in 1915, and it flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, particularly in urban areas of the Midwest and West. This second organization adopted a white costume and used code words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings. The third and current manifestation of the KKK emerged after 1950, in the form of small, local and they have focused on opposition to the Civil Rights Movement, often using violence and murder to suppress activists. It is classified as a group by the Anti-Defamation League. As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League puts total Klan membership nationwide at around 3,000, the second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to Americas Anglo-Saxon blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism. Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality, virtually every Christian denomination has officially denounced the KKK, the manual of rituals was printed by Laps D. McCord of Pulaski. According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities, Beginning in April,1867, the members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. Although there was little organizational structure above the level, similar groups rose across the South and adopted the same name. Klan groups spread throughout the South as an insurgent movement promoting resistance, for example, Confederate veteran John W. Morton founded a chapter in Nashville, Tennessee. As a secret vigilante group, the Klan targeted freedmen and their allies, it sought to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871, the government passed the Enforcement Acts. The first Klan had mixed results in terms of achieving its objectives and it seriously weakened the black political establishment through its use of assassinations and threats of violence, it drove some people out of politics. Rable argues that the Klan was a failure and therefore was discarded by the Democratic leaders of the South. He says, the Klan declined in strength in part because of weaknesses, its lack of central organization. More fundamentally, it declined because it failed to achieve its central objective – the overthrow of Republican state governments in the South, for instance, the Red Shirts are credited with helping elect Wade Hampton as governor in South Carolina

6.
Stevedore
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A stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock laborer, wharfie, wharf rat, lumper, whombler, and/or longshoreman is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships. The word stevedore originated in Portugal or Spain, and entered the English language through its use by sailors. In Canada, the term stevedore has also used, for example, in the name of the Western Stevedoring Company, Ltd. based in Vancouver. Loading and unloading ships requires knowledge of the operation of loading equipment, the techniques for lifting and stowing cargo. In addition, workers must be strong and be able to follow orders attentively. In order to unload a ship successfully, many longshoreman are needed, there is only a limited amount of time that a ship can be at a port, so they need to get their jobs done quickly. In earlier days before the introduction of containerization, men who loaded and unloaded ships had to tie down cargoes with rope, a type of stopper knot is called the stevedore knot. The methods of tying up parcels of goods is called stevedore lashing or stevedore knotting. Today, the vast majority of cargo is transported in intermodal containers. The containers arrive at a port by truck, rail or another ship and are stacked in the storage area. When the ship that will be transporting them arrives, the containers that it is offloading are unloaded by a crane, the containers either leave the port by truck or rail or are put in the storage area until they are put on another ship. Once the ship is offloaded, the containers it is leaving with are brought to the dock by truck, a crane lifts the containers from the trucks into the ship. As the containers pile up in the ship, the workers connect them to the ship and those workers at the port who handle and move the containers are likely to be considered stevedores or longshoremen. Before containerization, freight was handled with a longshoreman’s hook. Traditionally, stevedores had no fixed job, but would arrive at the docks in the morning seeking employment for the day, London dockers called this practice standing on the stones, while in the United States it was referred to as shaping. In Britain, due to changes in employment laws, such jobs have become permanent or have been converted to temporary jobs. Dock workers have been a prominent part of the labor movement. Container handling in Hong Kong -2005 In Australia, the informal term wharfie, the term stevedore is also sometimes used, as in the company name Patrick Stevedores

7.
Los Angeles Times
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The Los Angeles Times, commonly referred to as the Times or LA Times, is a paid daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008, the Times is owned by tronc. The Times was first published on December 4,1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and it was first printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T. J. Unable to pay the bill, Cole and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. Mathes had joined the firm, and it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication, in July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the papers editor. Otis made the Times a financial success, in an era where newspapers were driven by party politics, the Times was directed at Republican readers. As was typical of newspapers of the time, the Times would sit on stories for several days, historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis was a businessman capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment. Otiss editorial policy was based on civic boosterism, extolling the virtues of Los Angeles, the efforts of the Times to fight local unions led to the October 1,1910 bombing of its headquarters, killing twenty-one people. Two union leaders, James and Joseph McNamara, were charged, the American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who eventually pleaded guilty. Upon Otiss death in 1917, his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, Harry Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler, who ran the paper during the rapid growth of post-war Los Angeles. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios, the site also includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims. The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler, held that position from 1960 to 1980, Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his familys paper, often forgotten in the power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nations most respected newspapers, notably The New York Times, believing that the newsroom was the heartbeat of the business, Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962, the paper joined with the Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for news organizations. During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than its previous nine decades combined, eventually the coupon-clipping branches realized that they could make more money investing in something other than newspapers. Under their pressure the companies went public, or split apart, thats the pattern followed over more than a century by the Los Angeles Times under the Chandler family. The papers early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history Thinking Big and it has also been the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications or social science in the past four decades. In 2000, the Tribune Company acquired the Times, placing the paper in co-ownership with then-WB -affiliated KTLA, which Tribune acquired in 1985

8.
Seattle
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Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the major city in the United States. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border, a major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named Seattle in 1852, after Chief Siahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Logging was Seattles first major industry, but by the late-19th century, growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, in 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District, the jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge, archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay, the first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28,1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, after a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, david Swinson Doc Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name Seattle appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23,1853, in 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14,1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of managing the city

9.
San Pedro, Los Angeles
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San Pedro is a community within the city of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909, the Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located within San Pedro. The district has grown from being dominated by the industry to become primarily a working class community within the city of Los Angeles. The site, at the end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The peninsula, including all of San Pedro, was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieleño Native American people for thousands of years, in other areas of the Los Angeles Basin archeological sites date back 8, 000–15,000 years. The Tongva believe they have been here since the beginning of time, once called the lords of the ocean, due to their mastery of oceangoing canoes, many Tongva villages covered the coastline. Their first contact with Europeans in 1542 with João Cabrilho, the Portuguese explorer who also was the first to write of them, chowigna and Suangna were two Tongva settlements of many in the peninsula area, which was also a departure point for their rancherias on the Channel Islands. Legend has it that the Native Americans blessed the land of Palos Verdes, the Tongva called the San Pedro area Chaaw. San Pedro was named for St. Peter of Alexandria, a bishop in Alexandria. His feast day is November 24 on the ecclesiastical calendar of Spain. Santa Catalina Island, named after Catherine of Alexandria, was claimed for the Spanish Empire the next day, on her feast day, in 1602–1603, Sebastián Vizcaíno officially surveyed and mapped the California coastline, including San Pedro Bay, for New Spain. The anglicized pronunciation, popularized by the English-speaking people of Midwestern America, is san-PEE-dro, european settlement began in 1769 as part of an effort to populate California, although trade restrictions encouraged more smuggling than regular business. Rancho San Pedro is the site of the first Spanish land grant in Alta California, the land was granted in 1784 by King Carlos III to Juan Jose Dominguez, a retired Spanish soldier who came to California with the Gaspar de Portolà expedition. When New Spain won its independence from the Spanish Empire and Alta California became part of Mexico, the restrictions were lifted. In 1888, the War Department took control of a tract of land next to the bay and this became Fort MacArthur in 1914 and was a coastal defense site for many years. Woodrow Wilson transferred 200 United States Navy ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1919 when tension arose between the United States and Japan over the fate of China. San Diego Bay was considered too shallow for the largest ships, local availability of fuel oil minimized transportation costs, and consistently good weather allowed frequent gunnery exercises off the nearby Channel Islands of California. The heavy cruisers of the Scouting Force were transferred from the Atlantic to San Pedro in response to the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, by 1934,14 battleships, two aircraft carriers,14 cruisers, and 16 support ships were based at San Pedro

10.
Los Angeles Police Department
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The Los Angeles Police Department, officially the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the law enforcement agency for the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 9,843 officers and 2,773 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department, the department serves an area of 498 square miles and a population of 4,030,904 people. The LAPD has been fictionalized in numerous movies, novels, the department has also been associated with a number of controversies, mainly concerned with racism, police brutality, and police corruption. The first specific Los Angeles police force was founded in 1853, as the Los Angeles Rangers, the Rangers were soon succeeded by the Los Angeles City Guards, another volunteer group. Neither force was particularly efficient and Los Angeles became known for its violence, gambling, the first paid force was created in 1869, when six officers were hired to serve under City Marshal William C. Warren. By 1900, under John M. Glass, there were 70 officers, in 1903, with the start of the Civil Service, this force was increased to 200. During World War II, under Clemence B, horrall, the overall number of personnel was depleted by the demands of the military. Despite efforts to maintain numbers, the police could do little to control the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, Parker advocated police professionalism and autonomy from civilian administration. However, the Bloody Christmas scandal in 1951 led to calls for civilian accountability, under Parker, LAPD created the first SWAT team in United States law enforcement. Officer John Nelson and then-Inspector Daryl Gates created the program in 1965 to deal with threats from radical organizations such as the Black Panther Party operating during the Vietnam War era. The old headquarters for the LAPD was Parker Center, named former chief William H. Parker. The new headquarters is the new Police Administration Building located at 100 W. 1st St. immediately south of Los Angeles City Hall, the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners also known as the Police Commission, is a five-member body of appointed officials which oversees the LAPD. The board is responsible for setting policies for the department and overseeing the LAPDs overall management, the Chief of Police reports to the board, but the rest of the department reports to the chief. The Office of the Inspector General is an independent part of the LAPD that has oversight over the department’s internal disciplinary process and it was created by the recommendation of the Christopher Commission and it is exempt from civil service and reports directly to the Board of Police Commissioners. The current Inspector General is Alexander A. Bustamante who was formerly an Assistant United States Attorney, the OIG receives copies of every complaint filed against members of the LAPD as well as tracking specific cases along with any resultant litigation. The OIG also conducts audits on select investigations and conducts regular reviews of the system in order to ensure fairness. As well as overseeing the LAPDs disciplinary process, the Inspector General may undertake special investigations as directed by the Board of Police Commissioners, the Office of the Chief of Police is the administrative office comprising the Chief of Staff and the Employee Relations Group. The majority of the LAPDs approximately 10,000 officers are assigned within the Office of Operations, an Assistant Chief, currently First Assistant Chief Michel Moore, commands the office, and reports directly to the chief of police

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American Federation of Labor
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The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers International Union was elected president of the Federation at its convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. The American Federation of Labor organized as an association of trade unions in 1886, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions also merged into what would become the American Federation of Labor. In January 1886, the Cigar Manufacturers Association of New York City attempted to flex its muscle by announcing a 20 percent wage cut in factories around the city. The Cigar Makers International Union refused to accept the cut and 6,000 of its members in 19 factories were locked out by the owners, a strike lasting four weeks ensued. The leadership of the CMIU was enraged and demanded that the New York District Assembly be investigated and punished by the officials of the Knights of Labor. The committee of investigation was controlled by individuals friendly to the New York District Assembly, however, the American Federation of Labor was thus originally formed as an alliance of craft unions outside the Knights of Labor as a means of defending themselves against this and similar incursions. The call stated that an element of the Knights of Labor was doing work and causing incalculable mischief by arousing antagonisms. Forty-three invitations were mailed, which drew the attendance of 20 delegates, the actions of the New York District Assembly of the K of L were upheld. Forty-two delegates representing 13 national unions and various local labor organizations responded to the call. Revenue for the new organization was to be raised on the basis of a tax of its member organizations. Governance of the organization was to be by annual conventions, with one delegate allocated for every 4,000 members of each affiliated union. Gompers would ultimately be re-elected to the position by annual conventions of the organization for every year one until his death nearly four decades later. Headway was made in the form of endorsement by various local labor bodies, the group from the outset concentrated upon the income and working conditions of its membership as its almost sole focus. The AFLs founding convention declaring higher wages and a shorter workday to be preliminary steps toward great, participation in partisan politics was avoided as inherently divisive, and the groups constitution was structured to prevent the admission of political parties as affiliates. The AFL faced its first major reversal when employers launched an open shop movement in 1903 designed to drive out of construction, mining, longshore. Ever the pragmatist, Gompers argued that labor should reward its friends, after 1908, the organizations tie to the Democratic party grew increasingly strong

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Port of Los Angeles
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The Port of Los Angeles, also called Americas Port, is a port complex that occupies 7,500 acres of land and water along 43 miles of waterfront and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. The port is located in San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro and Wilmington neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a department of the City of Los Angeles, the Port of Los Angeles employs nearly 896,000 people throughout the LA County Region and 3.6 million worldwide. Around $1.2 billion worth of cargo comes in and out each day at the LA Port, the Ports Channel Depth is 53 feet. The port has 23 cargo terminals,270 deepwater berths,77 container cranes,9 container terminals, the LA Port imports furniture, footwear, electronics, automobile parts, and apparel. The Port exports wastepaper, cotton, resins, animal feed, the ports major trading partners are China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. S. In 1542, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo discovered the Bay of Smokes, the south-facing San Pedro Bay was originally a shallow mudflat, too soft to support a wharf. Visiting ships had two choices, stay far out at anchor and have their goods and passengers ferried to shore, or beach themselves. That sticky process is described in Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, phineas Banning greatly improved shipping when he dredged the channel to Wilmington in 1871 to a depth of 10 feet. The port handled 50,000 tons of shipping that year, after Bannings death in 1885, his sons pursued their interests in promoting the port, which handled 500,000 tons of shipping in that year. The Southern Pacific Railroad and Collis P. Huntington wanted to create Port Los Angeles at Santa Monica, however, the Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis and U. S. Senator Stephen White pushed for support of the Port of Los Angeles at San Pedro Bay. The Free Harbor Fight was settled when San Pedro was endorsed in 1897 by a commission headed by Rear Admiral John C, with U. S. government support, breakwater construction began in 1899, and the area was annexed to Los Angeles in 1909. The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners was founded in 1907, in 1912 the Southern Pacific Railroad completed its first major wharf at the port. During the 1920s, the port surpassed San Francisco as the West Coasts busiest seaport, in the early 1930s, a massive expansion of the port was undertaken with the construction of a breakwater three miles out and over two miles in length. In addition to the construction of this outer breakwater, a breakwater was built off Terminal Island with docks for seagoing ships. It was this improved harbor that hosted the events for the 1932 Summer Olympics. During World War II the port was used for shipbuilding, employing more than 90,000 people. In 1959, Matson Navigation Companys Hawaiian Merchant delivered 20 containers to the port, the opening of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in 1963 greatly improved access to Terminal Island and allowed increased traffic and further expansion of the port

San Pedro is a community within the city of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with …

Image: Map of San Pedro, California

1859 survey map of the Rancho San Pedro

In this night-time aerial photograph of Los Angeles, San Pedro is in the center and right foreground, including part of the brightly lit Terminal Island. The dark peninsula to the left of San Pedro is Palos Verdes.